Gold futures were edging lower Friday morning, a day after badly losing their grip on the key $1,900 level to mark the lowest settlement in more than two weeks.
The headwinds for bullion produced on Thursday were blamed on the better-than-expected U.S. private-sector payrolls report for May, while the nonfarm-payrolls report for May from the U.S. Labor Department due Friday morning could provide another jolt for precious metals.
“Metal traders will be closely watching any excessive jump in the hourly wage component of the labor report,” wrote Peter Cardillo, chief market economist at Spartan Capital Securities, in a daily note.
Members of the Federal Reserve have said that jobs are a point of focus in determining whether the economy needs further support in the recovery from COVID.
The U.S. jobs data are due at 8:30 a.m. Eastern, and economists expect hiring to have accelerated in May. Consensus estimates are for a gain last month of up to 671,000, based on a poll of economists by Dow Jones and The Wall Street Journal. The unemployment rate, meanwhile, is expected to dip to 5.9% from 6.1%.
The ADP report showed 978,000 new private sector jobs were created in May. That was well above the rise of 680,000 forecast by economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal.
Gold for August delivery
GCQ21,
+0.06%
GC00,
+0.06%
was trading 30 cents, or less than 0.1%, higher at $1,873.60 an ounce, finishing at its lowest since May 18.
Meanwhile, July silver
SIN21,
-0.03%
was trading 2 cents, or less than 0.1%, lower at around $27.46 an ounce, after skidding 2.6% on Thursday.
The dollar was flat, as measured by the ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
-0.02%,
after a sharp rise Thursday, and the 10-year Treasury note yield
TMUBMUSD10Y,
1.622%
was holding steady at around 1.62%.
